By Martha Rose Shulman
- Total Time
- About 1½ hours, mostly unsupervised simmering (plus overnight soaking)
- Rating
- 5(209)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Wheat berries sweetened with honey and perfumed with rose water and spices make a delicious breakfast on their own or stirred into yogurt (that’s the way I prefer to serve this). Whether you use farro, kamut, spelt or wheat berries (and whether you are cooking them for breakfast or for dinner) the trick here is to cook the grains for as long as it takes for them to really soften and to splay (that is, to burst at one end).
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Ingredients
Yield:Serves 4 to 6
- 1cup wheat berries
- 5cups water
- Salt to taste
- ¼cup honey, agave syrup or brown sugar, or more to taste
- ½ to 1teaspoon rose water, to taste
- 1teaspoon ground anise or fennel seeds
- ¾teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- ½cup raisins or other chopped dried fruit of choice
- ⅓cup chopped walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, or a mixture for garnish
- 2cups plain low-fat yogurt (optional)
- Pomegranate seeds for garnish (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
268 calories; 6 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 48 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 23 grams sugars; 9 grams protein; 798 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Preparation
Step
1
The night before, combine wheat berries, 1 quart of the water and salt and bring to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 hour. Remove from heat, stir in the honey, agave syrup or sugar, rose water, anise or fennel seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg and raisins or dried fruit. Cover and leave overnight (or for 5 to 6 hours).
Step
2
In the morning, add remaining cup of water to the wheat berries and bring to a simmer. Cook 30 to 45 minutes, stirring often, until berries are soft and splayed at one end. There should be some liquid surrounding the wheat berries (add more water if necessary). Taste and add more sweetener if desired.
Step
3
Serve on their own with some of the liquid in the saucepan (stir in some milk if desired), or spoon about ⅓ cup yogurt into bowls and top with a generous spoonful of the berries, with some of the sweet broth. Top with a handful of chopped nuts and a few pomegranate seeds if desired.
Tip
- Advance preparation: The cooked wheat berries will keep for 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator. The dried fruit will continue to swell and will lose flavor, but it will be captured in the broth.
Ratings
5
out of 5
209
user ratings
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Cooking Notes
Mary
I loved the chewy texture of this breakfast. Next time I will cut down on the spices, particularly the fennel seed, which I found to be hard to take first thing in the morning, and also will cut down on the honey.
Asta
Used a pressure cooker to cook the wheat berries (1:3) for 30 minutes.
Didn't have rosewater but it still turned out great!
Heather
Way way too sweet. Next time I will cut the sugar by at least half.
Jennifer
This is my breakfast go to. Easy to make in advance, and the seasoning is spot on. I have substituted dried cherries from Trader Joe or dried diced apricots and also had tasty results.
FoulkesMD
Fennel seeds are too defining a flavor and to my taste costs the nutty and sweet of the wheat berries. Then again I don't choose rye bread and many love it. I used the instant Pot for the initial prep. Pressure cooking is amazing. Cut the time to 30 minutes but no stirring or fretting.
NC
Slow cooker works well for this recipe with less fuss. I just threw everything in the slow cooker (decreased the water to about a 1:4 ratio), and set on low. I did this in the evening and woke up to a great breakfast.
Val from NZ
This is a great recipe and reminds me of a time when I lived in the Middle East and an Egyptian friend introduced me to this dish (she called it belila). An excellent addition to the make ahead breakfast repertoire if you’re getting tired of overnight oats and chia seed pudding.I made it using my friend’s tip - serve with chai tea poured over it instead of milk at the the end.
Haley
Yum! I thought this was plenty sweet by using chopped up dates without additional sweetener.
Honor
Well this did not work for me. Maybe the simmering was too tricky - I followed the recipe as written but after the overnight soak and the morning simmer, my wheat berries were still tough. I added an extra hour on top of the summer time and no improvement, also didn’t get the broth. So I’m going to try to eat these and hope my intestines can handle the scraping! Don’t think wheat berries warr my ancient grain of choice. . .
Katherine West
Wheat berries might have been too old. Try fresher. If food stays tough after lots of cooking it’s usually age. Good luck
HNYC
I would like to understand who has an hour to prep breakfast the night before and another 45 minutes in the morning just to eat cooked grains.
Val from NZ
This is a great recipe and reminds me of a time when I lived in the Middle East and an Egyptian friend introduced me to this dish (she called it belila). An excellent addition to the make ahead breakfast repertoire if you’re getting tired of overnight oats and chia seed pudding.I made it using my friend’s tip - serve with chai tea poured over it instead of milk at the the end.
NC
Slow cooker works well for this recipe with less fuss. I just threw everything in the slow cooker (decreased the water to about a 1:4 ratio), and set on low. I did this in the evening and woke up to a great breakfast.
Jenny Green
Loved this. If you can get pine honey it makes all the difference.
Roberta
In step one, does "cover and leave overnight" mean in the refrigerator?
Elyse
Was this question ever answered? Is this OK to leave out overnight on the stove?
FoulkesMD
Fennel seeds are too defining a flavor and to my taste costs the nutty and sweet of the wheat berries. Then again I don't choose rye bread and many love it. I used the instant Pot for the initial prep. Pressure cooking is amazing. Cut the time to 30 minutes but no stirring or fretting.
Heather
Way way too sweet. Next time I will cut the sugar by at least half.
Jennifer
This is my breakfast go to. Easy to make in advance, and the seasoning is spot on. I have substituted dried cherries from Trader Joe or dried diced apricots and also had tasty results.
Asta
Used a pressure cooker to cook the wheat berries (1:3) for 30 minutes.
Didn't have rosewater but it still turned out great!
Mary
I loved the chewy texture of this breakfast. Next time I will cut down on the spices, particularly the fennel seed, which I found to be hard to take first thing in the morning, and also will cut down on the honey.
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